'Unpinned grenade': French first lady caused nothing but trouble working for magazine, author says

Henry Samuel in Paris

VALERIE TRIERWEILER'S boss says she has caused "nothing but trouble" at the magazine where she works since becoming France's First Lady, according to a new book.

Arnaud Lagardere, the billionaire owner of Paris Match, the glossy weekly, allegedly viewed the 47-year-old divorcee as "an unpinned grenade" whose contract he did not wish to renew at the end of the year. The comments come from a new biography on the controversial 51-year-old arms and media tycoon by the journalist Jacqueline Remy, extracts of which were published in Marianne magazine yesterday.

In Arnaud Lagardere, The Heir Who Wanted To Live His Life, Remy said she asked him whether having the French first lady as an employee was a benefit.

"Are you kidding?" he is quoted as replying. "Up until now, she's caused us nothing but trouble!"

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Mr Lagardere is cited as saying in June that Miss Trierweiler's contract would not be renewed at the end of the year. He justified his decisipinned grandon by saying he wanted "to avoid any conflict of interest" between her journalistic activities and her role as President Francois Hollande's partner.

The comments were made just weeks after Miss Trierweiler had attacked her own magazine for putting her picture on its front cover without informing her first and calling her Mr Hollande's "charming asset". After publicly branding her employer "sexist", she is said to have fired off a threatening message to Mr Lagardere and his media chief warning: "We won't be doing any more articles with the group."

The implication was that Mr Hollande would blackball Paris Match.

Despite the row, Mr Lagardere later changed his mind over not renewing Miss Trierweiler's contract, agreeing to keep her on after Mr Hollande assured him that "she isn't really a first lady", according to the book.

Miss Trierweiler, a one-time political journalist who met Mr Hollande while covering his Socialist party, now writes only a literary column in Paris Match.

Mr Lagardere is known to be close to former president Nicolas Sarkozy, and is said to have dismissed his former editor after he used photos of Mr Sarkozy's second wife Cecilia and her lover Richard Attias in New York on the front cover.

The latest negative comments are the last thing Miss Trierweiler needs as she tries to rebuild her battered reputation after months of controversy that have seen her popularity plummet.

Just weeks after Mr Hollande took office, she provoked outrage by tweeting her support for a candidate standing in parliamentary elections against Segolene Royal, the mother of the president's four children. Miss Royal lost the election and blamed Miss Trierweiler for wrecking her political career.

Mr Hollande publicly rebuked her tweet in July, saying: "I am for a clear distinction between public and private life. I believe private matters should be regulated in private and I have asked those close to me to respect this."

She has said she "deeply regrets" the tweet, but has come in for more criticism in a slew of biographies - the most recent which claims she was in a menage a trois with Mr Hollande and a former Right-wing minister while married.

Another book by the journalist Anna Cabana called Between a Rock and Hard Place describes Miss Trierweiler as being "a cocktail of jealousy, vengeance and political calculation".